20/S1 HMRT 2023 A - Literature and human rights

Mark Perez Edgar, Paytra Waibel, Muchaneta Nyambuya, Elizabeth Miller

Dr. Amanda DiPaolo

HMRT 2023: Human Rights and Literature

St. Thomas University

28 October 2020

“My mother collapsed on the long, flat rock that reached into the river at our camp. No one could move her. She lay there for days, and it was only the chill of the first autumn rains that got her up on her feet and back to the fire. She was lost to me then. I could see that. She was gaunt and drained from days of weeping, a tent of skin over her bones. When Benjamin disappeared, he carried a part of her away with him, and there was nothing anyone could do to fill it. My father tried. He never left her side for weeks. But now that she had lost two children, she would not speak of anything except “the school,” the words like a bruise in the air." (Wagamese 11)

Throughout the reading and analysis of "Indian Horse" written by Richard Wagamese in 2012, the history and brutal truth of Canada's residential school system was brought to life through a fictional, but very real, heart wrenching novel. Mr. Wagamese carefully weaved a story full of human rights abuses, empathetic, heart wrenching moments, a claver thematic and chronological pace with many well thought out themes and literary devices. The book sheds light on the vast and devastating human rights issue that was the residential school system and allows individuals to realize that while the schools have closed, the mass abduction of Indigenous children and forced assimilation continues through the foster and social work program as well as the 1960's scoop that spanned well into the 80's and 90's. This particular passage chosen by our group truly reflects the devastating intergenerational trauma that Indigenous families face and the subsequent dysfunction and terror that families faced and the included CBC video at the bottom further demonstrates these gross injustices. 

The application of United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (hereinafter UNDRIP) demonstrates that Canada violated the rights of indigenous children and their families in the residential school system. Specifically, one of the most egregious violations is Article 8 of UNDRIP, which prohibits forced assimilation and destruction of indigenous people’s culture (UN General Assembly). In the residential school system, children are renamed with white-sounding christian names, which is the first step in stripping their identities away. Saul also notes that the children are not allowed to speak their native languages, they must only speak English or risk being paddled. This assimilation and destruction led to many children committing suicide or self harm. Saul recounts the story of a girl who came to the school with dignity, but the nuns inflicted permanent psychological damage upon her by forcing her to recite the bible constantly, and locking her in solitary confinement. As Saul remarks while being bathed by a nun, “it felt as though they were trying to remove our skin,” this was quite literally the goal of the school (Wagamese). Canada’s residential school system has been one of the most efficient at systematically destroying indigenous culture and forcing their assimilation, in violation of Article 8 of UNDRIP.

Article 8 provides for mechanisms of redress, but it is unlikely that Canada could be held accountable for their forced assimilation. In 2007, the UNDRIP was ratified by 144 states, but with four notable states dissenting: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States (Morin). Canada cited concerns that the UNDRIP would grant too much power to indigenous groups. Even though Canada eventually ratified the UNDRIP in 2016, the message was clear: bringing mechanisms of justice and reconciliation to indigenous peoples was not a priority for Canada. The UNDRIP is not a binding international law, so Canada cannot be held responsible for their actions under international law. The vagueness of Article 8 is also an issue: it demands that states provide “effective mechanisms,” but does not elaborate on what this means. The residential school system clearly falls within the enumerated categories of redress, including Art. 8 Sec. 2a: depriving ethnic identities, 2c: forced population transfer, and 2d: forced integration (UN General Assembly). But while Article 8 acknowledges that indigenous peoples have a right to be free from these, it fails to establish how these rights ought to be protected. Clearly, Canada is not going to provide redress over the residential school system of its own accord.

In regard to the empathy that the novel inspires in readers, the book is wrought with emotion. Just this simple passage depicts the anguish that Saul felt at having dysfunctional absent parents. Parents who were so warped and broken from the residential school system that his mother could barely move or breath a whisper of anything other than the words "the school". The fact that at the tender age of childhood Saul knew that his mother was lost to him is enough to send anyone over the edge. Further, the authors use of "a bruise in the air" helps readers fully grasp the absolute hours that happened in residential schools that changes and killed the souls of so many Indigenous individuals.

Looking at the book as a whole, empathy builds within the reader during times such as: the death of Sauls grandmother, the insinuation of sexual abuse at the residential school, the absence of Saul's parents, the treatment that the hockey players received from any individual hosting settler colonial privilege, and Sauls dissent into the depths of alcoholism and despair. Focusing this analysis back to the first video required in this class Lynn Hunt, in her presentation: The Genesis of Human Rights, discussed how novels make readers empathize and thus become inspired to change the narrative, we would suggest that this is in fact the case in regard to the present novel. The hardships that Indigenous people have faced is horrendous. From the beginning of colonialism, settlers have taken away Indigenous rights, have violated their bodies, their lands, their cultures, their traditions, and their religions, and have just about suppressed Indigenous people in any manner possible. From residential schools to the 60's scoop to present day social work and child welfare services, to the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and the multitudes o failures within government and the criminal justice system.

Many individuals may believe that these hours are all behind us but if you simply look at current media and events, that is clearly not the case. This statement is undoubtedly with regard to the atrocities going on right now in Nova Scotia. The commercial fishermen seized thousands of pounds of live lobster from Mi'kmaq fishermen and left it out in the open (Boynton, 2020). Wasting the lobster for absolutely no good reason. Not to mention the mobs attacking Indigenous fishermen and the fires that were set. The nations narrative needs to change and reading Indian Horse provokes just that. More people must become educated on the how's and the why's and real change and reform must be enacted. no more should racism actions, words, and behaviour be tolerated. Settler colonialism privilege needs to be put out and a new, inclusive, accepting and diverse narrative must take its place. For guidance, Canada can simply look at New Zealand, which struggled the same way in regard to the Indigenous Maori tribes. Now, the "Te Reo" language of the Maori is recognized as one of New Zealand's official languages (Clary, 2019).

Residential schools have had a terrible and continuous impact on the lives of Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indian Horse shows just how these schools abused and traumatized the people that were forced into them. Some of the many themes in the novel are the ideas of said abuse and trauma while also looking at the post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) that many Indigenous people faced because of their time at these residential schools. the passage that above shows just how much these schools affected the people that attended them, not only did they lose their cultural identity, they lost their families, sons, daughters, heritage, they lost everything. the residential schools corrupted a generation, they lost everything, all because of the racism and fear that the white government had against the indigenous population of Canada. Racism and prejudice is another major theme in the novel as it is the main reason into why the residential schools were created. Indigenous children were kidnapped from their homes, sent to schools where they could not speak their own language, their names were changed to more European ones, they could not worship their own gods, their entire culture was forbidden. This all happened because of the inherent racism and prejudice held by white society. The abuse and trauma the Indigenous people faced and continue to experience started with the residential schools and continues today with they many issues we see in the news.

The novel is written in first-person perspective, narrated by Saul who is the protagonist and the main character of the novel. This first-person perspective allows for the reader to feel all the emotions experienced throughout the book authentically.While reading, the reader could easily feel like they were right there with Saul, facing all life’s challenges with him.Throughout the book, Wagamese uses figurative language in the novel, this allows the reader to understand the suffering that went on in residential schools, both emotionally and physically. This allows the reader to develop an appreciation for indigenous culture and understand the impacts of the residential schools. The language used in the novel is very detailed and allows for the reader to use their imagination. Some of the figurative language used in Indian Horse is in the form of similes when Wagameses compares one thing to another. An example is how Saul compares St. Jerome’s to a black hole, stating that St. Jerome’s stole the light from his world (page 43). The school stole from him everything he had ever known. Wagamese's comparison between the school and the black hole portrays the children’s time at the residential schools to have been a dark time.

The tone and mood throughout the book is somber, sorrowful and hopeful. These are also the feelings the reader is left with. Wagamese uses literary devices throughout the book and specifically to the paragraph we chose, a clear picture is painted as to the sorrow and brokenness Saul’s mother was feeling when Benjamin was taken. The author’s diction here is straight to the point. We see this with the use of short sentences used throughout the passage to create tension, reinforce what the writer is saying and showing the impact at hand, that impact being the effects and traumas caused by the loss of children into the racist residential school system. Short and simple sentences used in this passage and throughout the book also give the reader time to think about what is being said. The author continues to use simple sentences through the novel, but also other sentence types.

The writer uses metaphors in the passage describing how Saul’s mother had lost weight saying that she had a “tent of skin” over her bones. This indicated that she had not been taking care of herself and was heartbroken, resulting in her being dehydrated and starved. Her skin was as thin as the tent fabric. The metaphoric description allows the reader to fully grasp the impact the loss of her children had on Saul’s mother. The line “She was lost to me then.” lets the reader understand that although Saul’s mother was physically present with Saul and the family, she was emotionally and mentally not present thus lost to Saul. Imagery is used throughout the book and the passage where the reader is able to use their imagination to grasp the events. The imagery is helpful for the reader to also grasp the emotions of the specific event.

Indian Horse is a fictional novel, but the story it tells us is real. Although a small read, it touches on an important subject and shows raw and pure experiences in the residential schools. It is not an easy topic to handle, but it is a very important topic. Wagamese is able to fit important life lessons in just 220 pages. A lesson that readers can take away from the book is that no matter how hard life may seem sometimes, we must keep fighting and keep going as there will be light at the end of the tunnel. This resilience is shown to us through Saul who endures a lot of pain and challenges but he makes it through.




Bibliography.

Boynton, Sean. Massive Fire Destroys Lobster Pound in Southern Nova Scotia\ Global News. October 17, 2020, https://globalnews.ca/news/7403167/mikmaq-lobster-plant-fire/

Clary, Alison. 10 Things to know about New Zealand Maori Culture Before Studying Abroad \ GO Overseas. September 9, 2019, https://www.gooverseas.com/blog/new-zealand-maori-culture

Morin, Brandi. Where Does Canada Sit 10 Years after the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples | CBC News. 14 Sept. 2017, www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/where-does-canada-sit-10-years-after-undrip-1.4288480.

The United Nations General Assembly. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. 2007.

Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse. Douglas & McIntyre, 2012.




CBC News, Residential School Survivor to Canadians: Have Some Empathy. March 21, 2018.

Quote:

“When your innocence is stripped from you, when your people are denigrated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backward, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That's what they inflicted on us. The beatings hurt. The threat belittled us. The incessant labour wearied us, made us old before our time. The death, disease, and disappearances filled us with fear. But perhaps what terrified us most were the nighttime invasions” (pg. 81).

Thesis:

The treatment of Indigenous peoples in the Residential school system left lasting impacts on the survivors and the families of those that had their lives taken. The students were given living conditions unfit to sustain human life. The devastating legacy of the Residential schools amounted to genocide, and the effects are still felt to this day.
Argument:

The novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese describes the story of a man named Saul and his dreadful journey through the Residential school system. The genocide of Indigenous people in Canada has not received formal recognition and it continues to be reduced to a Cultural genocide. Cultural genocide avoids any responsibility and prolongs healing for victims of residential schools as well as the reverabating effects intergenerational trauma has left. The Canadian government continues to go back and forth on whether residential schools constituted genocide or not, but feel adequate in giving it the title of cultural genocide, despite it falling directly under the genocide definition as stated in Article 6 of the Rome Statute. Article six of the Rome Statute defines genocide as: “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. (Article 6, Rome Statute). The subsections of article 6 include: “killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” (Article 6, Rome Statute).

When Residential schools were implemented, there was the belief that cleansing Indigenous people of their culture, language and heritage was a favour to them as a whole. The mentality of a white, english speaking catholic was ingrained in the minds of individuals as being the most superior of qualities, and something all individuals should strive for. The belief that the Residential school system provided good treatment, and achieving the goals of colonization practices demonstrates the Canadian government’s involvement in this atrocity. In the process of children being filtered through Residential schools, they were forcibly transferred from their homes and faced cruel and inhumane treatment. The forcible transfer of children is listed under article 6 of the Rome Statute, and it is crucial to note that under article 6, only one of the corresponding subsections needs to occur to constitute genocide. This completely ignores the genocide issue as a whole, and reduces their sufferings as a need to seek professional help to solve the generational issues that have resulted from Residential schools.

The passage I chose uses descriptive language to convey the feelings of the students that forcibly attended Residential schools. They worked to destroy culture and in the process, they shattered their innocence and were made to think that their previous way of living was “backward, primitive, savage, [and sub-human]” (pg. 81). In addition, this passage notes, “the incessant labour wearied us, made us old before our time” (pg. 81). These innocent children were forced to endure treatment and labour that stripped their childhood away from them. Survivors of the Residential schools were unable to live day-to-day life as children, they had to worry about beatings and surviving, something a child should never have to worry about. When children disappeared or died due to disease, this worried the others immensely, as they were living in fear of it happening to them. The author uses the term “nighttime invasions” to describe the sexual abuse children faced at night by the hands of the nuns and priests, and this is what the children feared most. This disgusting abuse left the children powerless and shameful. It was never spoken about afterwards, and the children internalized these horrific experiences.

Indian Horse describes the despicable actions of the Residential school leaders, and the lasting effects it had on the children. This is a terrible part of Canada’s past, as well as many other countries, and it is something that needs to be fixed. I do not believe it is something that can be solved overnight, however, the racism that continues to exist toward Indigenous peoples needs to be addressed. This novel is just one story of countless lives that have been taken and harmed through the Residential school system.

GROUP: THE OILERS

Passage chosen from Chapter 14: "I saw kids die of tuberculosis, influenza, pneumonia and broken hearts at St. Jerome’s. I saw young boys and girls die standing on their own two feet. I saw runaways carried back, frozen solid as boards. I saw bodies hung from rafters on thin ropes. I saw wrists slashed and the cascade of blood on the bathroom floor and, one time, a young boy impaled on the tines of a pitchfork that he’d shoved through himself. I watched a girl calmly fill the pockets of her apron with rocks and walk away across the field. She went to the creek and sat on the bottom and drowned. That would never stop, never change, so long as that school stood in its place at the top of that ridge, as long as they continued to pull Indian kids from the bush and from the arms of their people. So I retreated. That’s how I survived. Alone. When the tears threatened to erupt from me at night I vowed they would never hear me cry. I ached in solitude," (Page 55).


Residential schools profoundly affected Indigenous communities across Canada, causing generational emotional, mental, and physical wounding. Although the exact number is unknown due to lost records and runaway children, hundreds of thousands of children died at the hands of residential schools. This passage from Richard Wagamese's novel, Indian Horse, reflects the traumatic impact residential schools had on Indigenous children and highlights genocide that occurred across Canada.

This passage confronts the consequences resulting from residential schools like St. Jerome. When hearing the words "residential" and "school" many Canadians often associate these words with educational housing, making many imagine a boarding school setting. However, in Chapter 14, Wagamese addresses the reality of poor health conditions, lack of care from those running the institutions, and the mental torture these children were subjected to.

The ideology of these institutions' being necessary pushes the idea that children put in the schools had nowhere to go. Wagamese reminds readers that Indigenous people already had their communities, families, and homes when stating that suicides would continue to happen if they continued to pull kids away from their families. (pg.55) The Canadian government stole their children and with intentions of committing genocide.

Throughout the passage, Wagamese uses Saul's perspective to view the severe conditions of St. Jerome. Through this first-hand account, Wagamese can communicate, through Saul, how many horrors one child witnesses in their time at these institutions. This passage articulates the emotions of terror, confusion and helplessness, that Saul has when witnessing these accounts. When Saul retreats to solitude and avoidance of others, he recounts it as the reason for his survival, and that "when the tears threatened to erupt from [him] at night [he] vowed they would never hear [him] cry. [He] ached in solitude." (pg. 55) Despite the death, suicide, and violence around him, Saul remained strong in his agony and prevailed through the hardships.

Through the use of parataxis in this passage, Wagamese encompasses what Saul is feeling by using short and choppy sentences to stress the words he employs, such as: "So I retreated," "Alone," and "I ached in solitude" (pg. 55). Additionally, Wagamese uses frequent alliteration to emphasize the various violence accounts in Saul's memoir. For example, he writes "rafters on thin ropes," "blood on the bathroom," "impaled on a pitchfork," etc., but changes his tone when shifting to a non-alliterative style, such as "she went to the creek and sat at the bottom and drowned," (pg. 55). These shifts emphasize the seriousness of each violent or suicidal act Saul remembers and makes the reader feel an impact through the use. Wagamese also uses repetition such as "never stop, never change," to express the desperate feelings of Saul and the other Indigenous children, and the entrenched system of oppression as grounded through residential schools, including St. Jerome's.

Genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Convention and Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as "killing people of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group, purposefully inflicting poor conditions of life, inflicting bodily harm on the group, removing their children to another group and stopping the reproduction of the group with the intentions to destroy that particular group," (UN General Assembly, 1948). Ethnic cleansing is derived from the false ideology that white people's way of life is superior. Ethnic cleansing was the purpose of residential schools; they aimed to remove Indigenous culture from children and assimilate them into Western, Christian, and white patriarchal ideologies. Evidence of genocide in this passage includes the intentional infliction of harm and torture, forced removal of children from their families, and maintaining poor living conditions. Canada's residential schools and their genocidal intentions are why many Indigenous people suffer from trauma, suicide, and substance abuse.

Saul discusses how St. Jerome was responsible for killing the children around him; through sickness, death while trying to escape and committing suicide to end their suffrage. White supremacy lies at the foundation of residential schools. The actions of residential schools are the root cause of the trauma and suicide of Indigenous people. Physical, mental, and sexual abuse were methods used by the school to inflict bodily harm and create poor living conditions for the children who were forcibly removed from their families. Trauma severity resulting from these actions is evident in Saul's explanation of the number of suicides he witnessed. He explains that as long as the school continued to remove them from their families, Indigenous children would continue to take their own lives (pp.55). It is also important to note, the psychological mark and trauma left on these children did not just disappear with the closure of the residential school. It haunted them for the rest of their lives, and it is also considered intergenerational trauma as the repercussion also affected the following generations.

Though residential schools have not operated in Canada since the 1990s, there are not enough approaches to addressing Indigenous people's long-term issues and traumas. The Canadian government needs to take accountability for the genocide of Indigenous peoples in residential schools. Additionally, more government-funded programs are required to treat the long-term consequences of residential schools such as alcohol and substance abuse, intergenerational trauma, thoughts of suicide, and better reconciliation efforts with Indigenous communities and their leaders. Finally, our primary and secondary education systems need to address Indigenous history, Indigenous peoples' rights and violations of those rights, and the significant traumas Indigenous people suffered due to such violations.

Work Cited:

UN General Assembly, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December 1948, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 78, p. 277, Available at, https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocitycrimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf(Accessed October 27, 2020) Article 2.

Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse. Douglas & McIntyre, 2012.

Indian Horse Reflection

Megan Hartery

Jordan Hendricks

Colbie McKay

Mary Gannon

St. Thomas University

October 28th, 2020

HMRT 2023

Dr. Dipaolo

























Thesis: Though Canada presents its history as one that is right and just, Canada’s history with indigenous populations is in fact the erosion of language and culture through trauma, injustice and cultural genocide.

Passage: Page 48, “At St.Germ’s … right there in the classroom”

This novel highlights the grave injustices that the Indigenous Peoples of Canada have faced and continue to face to this day. This book perfectly notes both the traumatic experiences that Indigenous children were forced through, the rights of both the child & Indigenous People that were violated and generational trauma that is still occurring to this day. This novel helps us to fully understand what permanent and constant damage violating human rights can cause and provides a real world example of a violation that we are dealing with today along with the repercussions that last decades. Saul Indian Horse experiences many different forms and degrees of racial prejudice within the novel and we see this right from the beginning. Saul is a product of residential school survivors and we can see this in the intergenerational trauma very early on in the novel, for example, when Saul speaks about his mother’s everlasting trauma, which stemmed from what she experienced, “it was the school that Naomi hid us from. It was the school that had turned my mother so far inward she sometimes ceased to exist in the outside world.” (pg. 9)

When Saul is kidnapped and sent to St. Jerome’s, he is forbidden from speaking his native language or participating in his cultural traditions. The teachers at the school regularly tell Saul and his classmates that their Indigenous identity is inferior to white Canadian Identity. This can be seen in various points of the story after particularly humiliating defeats, one of which can also be seen on the ice, where Saul is repeatedly belittled, bullied and shamed by the white players.

Racist townspeople repeatedly unleash their anger on Saul, and his Indigenous teammates, because hockey is considered to be a ‘white-man sport’. The White hockey players can’t stand that Saul is better at the game. Moreover, it makes it apparent that it does not matter what Indigenous children ‘achieve’ at residential schools, they will always be less-than and not good enough in the eyes of the White, Catholic population. In forbidding the children to practice their traditions and speak their language, it is hard for Saul to find out who he really is, and those inflicting harm know this. We see an example of this where Saul is forbidden to play hockey with the white players.

We see the trauma of residential schools throughout the novel, in many different situations. We first see it in the beginning of the novel, with Saul’s mother. He describes her as a spectre (pg. 5), a husk of someone that does not exist anymore. His grandmother does her best to hide Saul and his brother from the residential school, to protect them both, to keep them as who they are for as long as she can, but ends up losing them both to the injustice anyways (pg. 23). We next see it within the school itself, the children are beat for everything, even things they cannot control (pg. 48). They are punished if they fight back by being locked in a metal box for days on end. Because of this trauma, we see the effects of it not only through Saul’s parents, aunt, and uncle, but through his growing alcohol abuse, depression and PTSD. These all accompany this generational trauma Saul has endured from the beginning of his life.

The broad nature of atrocities committed in residential schools leaves a plethora of Human Rights abuses to examine. First off, in tandem with the recognition of the Canadian government, we must acknowledge that what Saul and so many other poor Indigenous children suffered was genocide. According to the Rome Statute, Article 6 outlines Genocide as, “For the purpose of this Statute, "genocide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” As we have seen throughout the novel, all of these conditions for Genocide were met. Perhaps more important to note is that only one must be met in order to qualify such an atrocity as Genocide. The fact that all 5 were met speaks to the level of abuse and dehumanization present in residential schools.

A myriad of human rights violations occurred throughout the novel, including the kidnapping of thousands of Indigenous children, continual beatings, sexual abuse, the perversion of sacred traditions and physical and mental exhaustion to name a few.

When Saul and thousands of other children in Canada were kidnapped and sent to residential schools, it directly went against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Specifically, Article 8: ”States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.”

A clear violation of human rights within our chosen passage can be seen where the child died from having soap shoved in his mouth, which directly points to article 6, “States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.” In residential schools, the lust for a white child and its accompanying values overshadowed even the most basic right to life.

Another example of human rights violations is article 9 (3), “States Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best interests.” Evidently, those responsible for the crimes at residential schools would argue that their twisted teachings were ‘in the best interest of the child’, however we know this to be an excuse for the years of abuse the children had to endure, and article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child proves they were morally and ethically insufficient in excusing their behaviour.

Sadly this is not something of the past and it is not something that is specific to Canada-according to the Independent in an article from 2017, China’s Uighur Muslims have been banned from using their language in schools. The human rights violations currently occurring in China are vast and extensive, however the specific incident with the Uighur Muslims has clear similarities with both the treatment of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and the Jewish People in Europe during WWII. Concentration camps, cultural genocide, special schools, these things are only a few of the similarities that we can see and the issue is only growing.

Lastly, though many other international and national human rights provisions would highlight the atrocities that occured in residential school, one provision that applies quite well is Article 19 in the ICESCR, “ States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.” It is evident the Canadian government was in clear violation of every instance within this provision, highlighting the fact that the erosion of Indigienous culture was far more important than the safety or integrity of the child.

Due to the ignorance of these rights throughout Canada’s disturbing history, thousands of children like Saul were subjected to racism, abuse and cultural genocide. This insidious act took place at the hands of white Canadian churches and the Canadian government. These children were stolen from their parents and were stripped of the cultural traditions, language, and Indigenous identity. They then grew into adults who were never given proper support, such as mental health counselling, for the trauma they endured.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-muslim-minority-school-language-ban-han-xinjiang-uyghur-hotan-hetian-government-communist-party-a7873446.html

Rome Statute: https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-library/documents/rs-eng.pdf

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (OHCHR) https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx

Indian Horse Close Readings - Canucks

Passage: page 53-54

"We could see the fish pushing up that water. It was thrilling. So much life, so much desperation, so much energy. We stood for a long time and just watched. Then some of us cut saplings and bent them around the inside lip of those sacks. We lowered the sacks into the water and pulled them up dripping and filled with fish. We watched the silvery, brown flash as they flopped out onto the bank, their puckered mouths flapping like wet kisses from fat aunties, their tails flipping and slapping against the ground. We pushed them back into the water and pulled up another sack. We did that four times. The fourth time we stood quietly, each of us lost in our thoughts, as the fish struggled for air, for life, for freedom. When we bent finally and took the fish in our hands to set them back into the water, most of us were crying. We turned as a group and began the long, sloping walk back up the ridge to the school. We walked with our hands cupped around our noses, breathing in the smell of those fish, pushing the slime of them around on our faces. We had no knives to clean them, flay them. We had no fire to smoke them over. We had no place to store them, no way to keep them. When they lay gasping on the grass, it was ourselves we saw fighting for air. We were Indian kids and all we had was the smell of those fish on our hands. We fell asleep that night with our noses pressed to our hands and as the days went by and the smell of those suckers faded, there wasn't a one of us that didn't cry for the loss of the life we'd known before. When the dozen of us cried in the chapel, the nuns smiled, believing it was the promise of their god that touched us. But we all walked out of there with our hands to our faces. Breathing in. Breathing in."

In this passage, Saul and his classmates spend an afternoon catching fish in a small creek that runs along the base of the ridge that St. Jerome’s is situated on. The children have no supplies to prepare or store the fish, so they throw them on the bank by the creek and watch as they “struggl[e] for air, for life, for freedom,” on the grass (Wagamese 53). Back at St. Jerome’s, the children hold their heads in their hands to inhale the lingering smell of the fish before it disappears. The priests and nuns mistakenly interpret their actions as praying. This experience leads Saul and his peers to reflect on their traumatic experience. They were stolen from their communities, thrust into a dangerous new environment, and now they are choking like fish out of water. This passage further illustrates the human rights issue of cultural genocide, which is defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As well, through forcing Catholicism onto the children along with disallowing their own culture's religion and rituals, there was a violation of Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, disallowing their freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This passage depicts how the Indigenous children feel after being sent to St. Jerome’s to un-learn their traditional culture and assimilate to the Catholic religion. They are isolated and detached, and their culture is slowly dying.

The experiences of Saul and his classmates at St. Jerome’s are shared among thousands of Indigenous children in Canada who were forced from their homes and taken to residential schools to be assimilated into Catholic culture. Canada ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1952, which expressly states that genocide is the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group through “killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” (UN General Assembly).

In the novel, the children go to the creek to catch fish and enjoy a small moment of happiness however even in the simplest of moments they are reminded of the terrible situation they are in. The children are like the fish struggling “for air, for life, for freedom” (Wagamese 53). They have been placed in an environment not meant for their survival and are gasping to hold on. Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide explicitly states that “Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” is an act of genocide. They were forcibly taken from their families and thrust in an abusive environment intentionally created to strip them of their culture and their lives. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified in Canada in 1976 states that “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching” (UN General Assembly). However, when the nuns saw the children crying with their hands to their noses, they were happy at the thought that the children have been assimilated into the notion praying. These children were forced to abandon their own rituals to practice Christianity. It was the intent of these sadistic residence schools to destroy the Indigenous people’s language, beliefs and rituals which would ultimately destroy this ethnic groups being not only physically but culturally.

 

Indian Horse is the story of Saul Indian Horse, recounted by him as a therapeutic memoir meant to heal the wounds that the residential system of schools has inflicted on him and his family. It is told in the first perspective and details Saul’s personal life before and after his confinement at St. Jerome’s. The tone employed by the author is nostalgic of a life lost, mournful of a helpless reality yet sadly hopeful for what the future has yet to bring.

The quote juxtaposes the conscience of the Indian children against the conscience of the nuns and the priests at the residential schools. The kids release the fish after seeing it struggle for air because they realize that they are incapable of doing more. It is an emphatic reaction that outlines to the reader that the ideals of morality are not always age affiliated. In contrast, the nuns and priests at St. Jerome ignore the ethical binds and disregard empathetic instincts by confining innocent children. It is disturbingly ironic to note that the individuals who run the residential schools are religious leaders meant to protect, guide, and do God’s work but instead they physically harm, emotionally torture, and do the exact opposite of what was set forth in the religious text they propagate.

The quote under analysis uses literary elements such as metaphors, symbolism, juxtaposed imagery, and irony to express themes of nostalgia, consciousness, and loss. At the beginning of the passage, the author highlights the symbolic nature of the fish to represent the Indian kids and uses the fishing experience as a metaphor to showcase how Indian children struggle to breathe within the captivity of residential school just as how the fish struggle to breathe on land. The passage takes us on an imagery-filled journey through the first couple of lines by detailing the fish’s initial reactions. The fish are desperate and ready to be returned to their natural and rightful environment just as the Indian children were when they had just arrived at the residential schools.

Richard Wagamese has personified the fish and related their experience of being forcefully removed from water to the Indian children being taken by the Canadian Government from their village. The land for the fish is an uninhabitable territory, the same as how the residential schools are for Indigenous children. Moreover, the author invokes the children’s past by having them breathe in the scent of the fish. Scent is used to trigger memory and is a distressing metaphor for the life the children have lost. The smell that is left on the children is linked with the memory of hope and freedom. As the smell slowly fades, the memory associated with it garners more power. The children desperately try to savor the smell because it becomes a source of strength and calm. Raising their hands up to faces, the Indian kids raise a white flag of memory and invoke from it, salvation. The final lines of this passage, “Breathing in. Breathing in,” refer to the initial metaphor comparing the children to the dying fish, both are fighting for air, praying to return to their previous normalcy and breathing, gasping and looking for a way to survive and just like the fish the children breath, they breathe in the scent, the breath in the air, they breathe through the pain and the hurt in hopes of one day returning to their water, their village.

The novel “Indian Horse” depicts Canada’s very real tragic past of residential schools, and the mistreatment and oppression of Indigenous people. More than oppression, the use of residential schools was a cultural genocide, where there was an attempt to assimilate the Indigenous culture completely. It was said the school’s purpose was to “kill the Indian in the child” (Indigenous Foundations). The root causes of this mistreatment of the Indigenous population in Canada is deeply historical. The non-indigenous population of Canada, since they settled here, believed the way Native people lived was inferior to their way of life, even savage. Euro-Canadians believed they had a duty, often a religious one, to save them from this evil of their own culture and bring them into the “light” of mainstream Canada. It was these beliefs that lead to the creation of residential schools. The effects of residential schools go far beyond the children that attended them, but the trauma was, and continues to be, generational. Children growing up without a nurturing family, did not know how to nurture their own children when they got older. As well, people suffering through trauma often turn to substance use, or have mental illnesses. Indigenous communities are still suffering the effects today. 

Solutions to alleviate this concern are not easy. There are no longer residential schools in operation, and there is no longer an ongoing attempt to assimilate a culture. However, it is the ongoing generational effects that need a solution. Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an official apology in 2008, where he acknowledged the attempt of the assimilation of a culture and apologized saying it had no place in Canada. There has also been compensation given by government to survivors. This is not enough. There needs to be action taken within Indigenous communities where they have access to mental health resources, and especially access to their own traditional healing processes. There needs to be a collaborative effort between Indigenous leaders and communities and government where they can voice their concerns and get the support they need to heal from this tragedy. Most importantly, Canadians cannot consider these schools as a part of our past and leave it at that, we need to be supporting Indigenous communities today, and realizing that the trauma is in the present. 

Works Cited

Indigenous Foundations. "The Residential School System" https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/

UN General Assembly, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December 1948, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 78, p. 277, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3ac0.html [accessed 28 October 2020]

UN General Assembly. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 16 December 1966. United Nations. Treaty Series. vol. 999. https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3aa0.html [accessed 28 October 2020].

Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse. Douglas & McIntyre, 2012.

 

Dillon Allan, Jessie-Lynn Cross, Ellen MacDonald, and Ashley Swaby

HMRTS 2023-A

Dr. Amada Dipalo

October 30th, 2020

Summarizing an Indian Horse Passage

In Richard Wagamese’s novel Indian Horse we encounter multiple human rights violations. For our passage on pages 80-81 we discuss Article 14 of the Convention on the Right of the Child, “The state should respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” Saul and the other children in St Jerome’s were assimilated through the force of Christianity and made to believe that their religious practices were impure, that they were heathens. Article 32 states from the Convention on the Rights of a Child, “Children should be protected from harmful work that negatively affects their development and education.” This relates to the day to day life of all of the children living in residential schools, specifically St Jerome’s, who had to perform labour daily, if they refused or were reluctant, they were punished. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.” Saul experienced the disappearance of many different children who were likely murdered and punished. This violation goes hand in hand with the labour forced upon the children as well as the beatings and abusive punishments. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.” The “iron sister” is introduced in this passage, which is a cruel and inhumane punishment given to the children where they are locked away for days and sometimes hours with no food, interactions and are left alone in the dark.


The book we have analyzed this week takes place around the late 1900’s. Saul, the protagonist, attends a residential school called St. Jerome’s from his young childhood until he is nearly a teenager. After that, he moved into a home with residential school survivors. He manages to survive residential school through his found love of hockey.

Our passage is from page 80 to page 81. It says:

“We were like stock. That’s how we were treated. Fed, watered, made to bear our daily burden and secured at night. Anybody who shirked or complained was beaten in front of everyone. That was perhaps the biggest crime: making us complicit through our mute and helpless witness. Sometimes older boys or girls would jump in and try to stop a beating, but they would be pummelled and bloodied and led away, never to be seen again. We lived under constant threat. If it wasn’t the direct physical threat of beatings, the Iron Sister or vanishing, it was the dire threat of purgatory, hell and the everlasting agony their religion promised for the unclean, the heathen, the unsaved. Those of us who remembered the stories told around our people’s fires trembled in fear at the images of hell, damnation, fire and brimstone.
I was never sent to the Iron Sister, but I saw it once, Father Leboutilier and I were stashing the hockey gear in the school’s basement. I had an armload of equipment as I walked behind him down the stairs. We turned a corner, and there it was. It was shaped like a shoebox, long and flat with a small grille in the door. I could see that it wasn’t high enough to allow even the smallest child to stand, or even kneel. I walked toward it, and the iron was cold to my touch…
When your innocence is stripped from you, when your people are denigrated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backward, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That is what they inflicted on us.
The beatings hurt. Threats belittled us. The incessant labour wearied us, made us old before our time. The death, disease and disappearances filled us with fear…”

The passage here was discussed by Saul, in a first-person point of view. This makes the passage more powerful and influential because you are hearing the story from someone who had actually lived through the experience, rather than someone else telling Saul’s story. His tone in the passage was factual and straightforward. It was almost as if he had told the same story repeatedly, to the point where he had no emotion left to give. The main literary devices used in this passage were the use of flashback, imagery, and similes. Saul is currently at a support group and this passage is part of the story he discusses from his past, explaining why he needed to attend the group. The imagery he uses describes the pain and torture he and other students felt. Some of the imagery used discussed the “Iron Sister”. An example is when Saul claims the Iron Sister was “like a shoebox, long and flat with a small grille in the door… the iron was cold to my touch.” This example illustrates imagery because Saul perfectly describes what the Iron Sister looked like, to help readers picture what he actually went through when he saw it. In the passage, there were two examples of similes used. First, Saul describes that they were treated like livestock – which is a simile, comparing students in residential schools to livestock. Another simile used was when Saul compared the “Iron Sister” to a shoebox.


Article 14 on the Convention on the Right of the Child outlines that the state should respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Saul explains that he and the other children lived under a constant threat. They were made to believe that their religious beliefs and practices were impure. The children lived in constant fear of a fiery hell if they did not follow the religious rules of Christianity. The state violated their right to choose when they imposed their religious views on these children. The article further outlines that the state should respect the right of the parent to provide guidance for their children. The state violated the right of the parents when they forcefully removed them from their homes.
Article 32 on the Convention on the Rights of a Child outlines that the state has the responsibility of ensuring that children are protected from economic exploitation. It clearly states that children should not perform work that is harmful to their physical, mental, spiritual and social development. Saul stated that the incessant labour made the children old before their time. The labour these children had to perform on a daily basis was more than any child should do. This labour they performed combined with their religious torment affected their physical, mental, spiritual and social development. The state permitted these activities and therefore violated the Article 32 of the convention.

As previously stated, from the United Declaration of Human Rights, the two sections that we are saying was violated within the novel and passage is article 25 and 5. Article 25 states "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services..." Clearly as seen within our selected passage on pages 80-81, the children are definitely not receiving the necessities to live a healthy and adequate life. For instance, in the second paragraph on page 80 it talks about children being taken away and never being seen again, leaving the reader to only assume that the children either are murdered or worse. It also goes into depth about the hard labour that the kids have to endure, as well as the incessant beatings and brutality committed. This goes against everything article 25 of the UDHR talks about... instead a healthy life, children are worked to death and murdered. Instead of allowing the children to see their family, and have food, and clothes, and medical care: they are prohibited from seeing family, they are starved, their clothes are dirty and do not fit, as well as a substantial lack of medical care and presumably most of the children are left to die from wounds and disease. The next article violated from the UDHR is article 5 "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Another part from the passage that violates the UDHR is the discussion of the 'iron sister.' The iron sister is a small metal closet-like space that children are put into when they "misbehave" or do not listen. Sometimes these children are left in this space for hours, and probably for days on end. This undeniably goes against article 5 that clearly states no one deserves to be subjected to torture or inhuman punishment, which this indefinitely falls under!
Through this novel many human rights violations occur and from pages 80-81 we encounter the violations of article 14 as well as article 32 from the Convention on the Rights of a Child. The children of St Jerome’s residential school were assimilated through forced religion and were endangered by forced labour and punishment. Articles 25 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were violated due to the disappearance and death of multiple children at St Jerome’s as well as the punishment and torture by use of the “iron sister.” Church and state should never be correlated, and if church was prevented from holding power in state, residential schooling could have been prevented. Religion should never be forced, and forced assimilation is a major human rights violation especially when it endangers whole societies.

Bibliography:

UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, p. 3, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b38f0.html [accessed 31 October 2020]

UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, 217 A (III), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3712c.html [accessed 31 October 2020]